


Reverse

by ColourMyGalaxies



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: AU where the 78th Class becomes Ultimate Despair, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, M/M, Mastermind!Mikan, Mastermind!Tsumiki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 11:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4476995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourMyGalaxies/pseuds/ColourMyGalaxies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[DISCONTINUED] In an alternate universe, Tsumiki Mikan, the future mastermind, converts the 78th Class of Kibougamine Academy into members of Ultimate Despair.<br/>Follow the 78th Class in their recruitment to despair (Ch 1), their involvement in The Tragedy (Ch 2), their killing game in the Neo World Program (Ch 3), and their recovery (Ch 4).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: Rewrote the fic so that Komaeda is Tsumiki's backup mastermind (like Ikusaba was to Enoshima in canon) and so that there are komahina & kamukoma elements.  
> EDIT 2: God, I hate this fic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Year 1 - Tsumiki Mikan convinces all the first-year students of Kibougamine to join her in her quest for ultimate despair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically a what-if AU of the characters of the first game being Ultimate Despair instead of the characters from the second game. This chapter is mainly told from Tsumiki's POV (the mastermind in this AU), featuring Enoshima's and Ikusaba's POVs here and there.  
> 

Tsumiki Mikan's life was an endless cycle of despair, and so she desired to spread that despair unto the rest of the world, even if it made people angry at her, bully her, and hate her. But there was one problem. Her original despairification plan had been to convert her fellow classmates into her first followers. But for some aggravatingly annoying reason, the third-year students of Kibougamine were brimming with hope! It just didn't make any sense for them to be hopeful! Every one of them had something tragic in their lives that should have made them despair, but nooo, they just HAD to be optimistic and assure themselves that things would get better! Defeated, she ranted to her equally despaired girlfriend, Enoshima Junko.

"It's not fair! It'snotfairit'snotfairit'snotfair IT'S NOT FAIR! I don't understand!" raved Tsumiki, "E-Everybody in my class should be filled to the brim with despair; everyone has so many things to despair about! Sexual and physical abuse, neglect, not being good enough, loneliness, or boredom, et cetera! But nooooo, all of them are justifying their horribly sucky lives with hope! I'm sick of it, you hear me? I'M SICK OF IT! Why aren't they interested in me; why are they ignoring my need for angst?! Why won't they just forgive me and join my cause for worldwide despair? Why? WHY?!?!"

Enoshima shifted from Tsumiki's dorm floor, looking deep in thought. The nurse could tell that Enoshima was thinking hard and pondering every single possible scenario, because the fashionista looked different every few seconds. Mushrooms sprouted from her luscious pink hair, then they were replaced by a crown, then the crown disappeared entirely, then a pair of glasses appeared in front of her pale blue eyes, and then she abruptly halted and looked up at Tsumiki, glasses nowhere in sight.

"Scrap 'em."

"...H-Huh?" Tsumiki questioned, dumbfounded.

"You heard me. Scrap 'em. Cancel your idea of making your class members of Ultimate Despair. Erase it from existence completely like I wish I could to myself."

"Ha... Ahahah... HAAAAAAAH?!" the nurse shrilled, "Junko, a-are you c-crazy?! I _need_ my classmates to be my followers! I've worked on that idea for over two years now! It's vital to the despairification just like sufficient sleep is to good blood circulation! Without disciples to help me spread despair, how will my plans for The Tragedy ever work?!"

"Mikan, I never said you wouldn't have disciples to help you."

"W-What?"

Enoshima combed a hand through her smooth ponytail - strange, her hair had been in pigtails just a second ago - and pushed up the pair of magically appearing glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "Let me explain," she stated, "I merely said to scrap your proposal of recruiting the 76th Class of Kibougamine Academy as your followers. This is because your classmates are full of hope and therefore unable to be converted to despair. However, this does not mean you must forfeit your entire despairification plan. You simply would have to find other more suitable candidates to be the first members of Ultimate Despair."

"B-But... who?"

"Ehhhhh? I'm hurt, desu, I thought you thought more of me!" Cute-personality Enoshima pouted, "You baka, of course I was talking about my class, the 78th Class!"

"The... first-years? Why?"

Enoshima's facial expression blanked. "Don't make me angry, Mikan, I can't believe you could be so slow-witted! Keep this up and you'll be even more of a disappointment than Mukuro! Anyway, contrary to your doubts, us first-year students are the perfect candidates for Ultimate Despair. Look at me; look at all the first-year students! You can practically see the despair in our eyes. Everybody, just like your class, just like me, has great despair in their lives, but unlike the senior students, we have no hope. Also, my friends already know you as my girlfriend, so it should be pretty easy to get them to accept you and for you to become their close friend. That's vital to your success, is it not? To win the hearts of your future followers so that they'll agree to your plans."

* * *

Tsumiki saw the wisdom in Enoshima's suggestions, so she made a slight change of plans. The 76th Class of Kibougamine would be the ones to participate in the School of Mutual Killing, so that she could be despaired when her beloved friends died one by one in her anticipated killing game. In turn, the 78th Class, the first-years, would join her as Ultimate Despair. And so, in preparation for what would later be called  _The_ _Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind,_ the Ultimate Nurse set out to recruit members for Ultimate Despair.

Before Tsumiki did anything else, she enlisted her girlfriend and Ikusaba Mukuro, as her allies. The nurse could practically sense the thick atmosphere of spiraling angst surrounding the two. She already knew Enoshima was born into despair, lived a whole life of despair, and had a despair fetish, just as she had. Plus, being her girlfriend, the fashionista already knew of her plans for worldwide despair, consequently, Enoshima instantly agreed to joining the nurse. Ikusaba had led the same despairing life as Enoshima had, since they were twins, so when Enoshima asked her older sister to join their clause, the mercenary instantly agreed as well. Or was that just because Ikusaba would do anything for her sister's attention and affection?

It was crucial for Tsumiki to "infiltrate" the 78th Class' hearts and form close and unbreakable heartfelt bonds with her underclassmen in order for her recruitment plan to succeed. And with the Despair Sisters' help, she did exactly that. Since the freshmen already somewhat knew Tsumiki because she was dating their friend Enoshima Junko, this step proved to be quite easy. Plus, both Enoshima and Ikusaba constantly encouraged their friends to hang out with her and become close to her. Tsumiki quickly became welcomed by everyone in the 78th Class. Well, most of them. Tsumiki noticed that some of the students were hesitant, cold, and judging her from afar. (Later, when she actually knew all their names, she recognized those unforgiving bullies as Kirigiri, Togami, Fukawa, and Celes.) However, thanks to the twins, she was almost always a part of their outings and therefore, she was quickly accepted by the 78th Class as a good, no, irreplaceable friend.

Halfway into the school year, three months after Tsumiki had first been introduced to the 78th Class by the twins, the floodgates burst open on the Fated Day.  

The whole class, plus Tsumiki, had been lounging in Naegi's dorm when Fujisaki announced that she, no, he was actually a boy. Moved by the programmer's courage and trust, all the other students decided to follow in his footsteps. Everybody else opened up their hearts to each other in an act of strong and pure trust. Everybody revealed their deepest and darkest secrets right in front of Tsumiki. Celes revealed that her real name was Yasuhiro Taeko. Fukawa shakily admitted she was Genocider Syo. Oowada told everyone about Daiya. Fujisaki had even managed to emotionally move the oh-so-superior Togami Byakuya; he informed his classmates that he wasn't loved - his parents never cared about him nor contributed to his upbringing for he was merely a disposable pawn in the Togami Corporation. Rather anti-climatically, Naegi had nothing to bring to the table except that he was a bedwetter until the fifth grade. 

As Tsumiki keenly listened to everybody's confessions, she barely managed to suppress a grin from stretching on her face. Her plan was a success. After three months of developing friendships with her underclassmen, she finally had the means to turn them into mechanisms of despair. Now that she knew everybody's deep and darkest secrets, she could twist their unguarded hearts to her bidding.

That night, she invited Enoshima into her dorm. There, they shuddered in orgasmic despair and indulged in each other. They indulged in pleasure, for they knew that tomorrow would be the beginning of everything. Starting from tomorrow, Tsumiki would finally progress in her plan to spread despair to the world. Starting from tomorrow, she would recruit members to Ultimate Despair, starting with her cherished first year students.

* * *

Judging from what she already knew about the first years of Kibougamine and her knew knowledge of their darkest secrets, Tsumiki could tell that the easiest ones to break would be Maizono, Fujisaki, Fukawa, Yamada, and Oowada. However, it would be suspicious for her to act alone, so the three co-founders of Ultimate Despair divided the first years amongst themselves. Then, they set out to work.

Enoshima's first target to convert to despair was Maizono Sayaka. Maizono may not have seemed like the perfect candidate for a member of Ultimate Despair, being a nation-wide pop sensation and all, but alas, she proved to be the easiest student to convert from hope to despair. Everybody thought she lived a lavish life full of luxury and free of pain or suffering. Nope, that turned out to be vastly far from the case! Maizono's mother died when she was just a child, her father was never around, and her seemingly glowing idol career was shallow and empty. Especially since Enoshima was also familiar with the entertainment industry and life of fame, it took just a few sentences of coaxing for Maizono to snap, and thus, the number of members in Ultimate Despair grew from three to four.

Fujisaki was super easy to convert to despair, as well. His life was filled with constant taunting targeted at his lack of masculinity; how he wasn't manly enough, how he needed to "be more like a man." Tsumiki intensified his weakness complex and tried to convince him that nobody would ever accept him for who he was and that he would never be strong or manly. At first, the programmer was resilient. He protested that their class had been very accepting when he first spilled his secret in Naegi's dorm! So Tsumiki had the Despair Sisters, his friends, prove him wrong. They jeered at him about how disgusting he was, how pathetic he was, and how hated he was. Just like that, seeing that his classmates truly did reject him for his weakness, Fujisaki started wallowing in an aura of dark despair and agreed to join their little group. Piece of cake.

Fukawa and Yamada were both lonely and misunderstood. Bullies had traumatized Fukawa and created a persecution complex within her, not to mention her split personality was the renowned serial killer known as Genocider Syo, while Yamada's love for doujin and the 2D world had formed irreparable rifts between him and his peers. Although the two of them had initially tried to counter that their classmates in the 78th Class seemed to like them well enough, Ikusaba was the one to crush their hopes and dreams by lying that they would never be liked no matter what.

Oowada was a fun one to crush under the unbearable weights of despair. In his desperation to prove his worth to the Crazy Diamonds, he had accidentally caused his older brother's death. As if the burden of "killing" Daiya wasn't enough, he had a weakness complex that made Fujisaki's look like a hissy fit in comparison. Tsumiki watched in delight as Mondo transitioned from his usual hot-headed self to a brooding, silent, and utterly broken soul, proving that the recruitment was a success. It was easy, too, she just mentioned that Daiya's death was his fault and that he was too weak to ever be accepted as his gang's true leader.

The ones who were a bit harder to convert were Ishimaru, Hagakure, Kirigiri, Celes, and Kuwata. When Tsumiki first proposed joining Ultimate Despair, Ishimaru flipped out and started rambling about morality and hope and whatnot. Tsumiki, timid and frail, was quite weak against strong-willed types like Ishimaru, so she had Enoshima confront him. Then, the fashionista pried into his past, using his past traumas against him, against his dreams. _You'll never restore honour to the Ishimaru name, silly Kiyotaka. Your grandfather's mistakes will haunt you, no, your whole family for eternity. All your hard work was in vain, useless Kiyotaka._ The more Ishimaru tried to defend himself, the more Junko attacked his insecurities and worthless dreams. When he finally albeit reluctantly agreed to join her, Enoshima kept emotionally attacking him, because Tsumiki couldn't have hesitation! No, she needed heart-wrenching despair, and for that, she needed full cooperation.  _Did you really think YOU could do ANYTHING? You're just a pain in the ass with no talent; hard work won't get you anywhere, stupid Kiyotaka. You can't even make friends with people because you're socially awkward and so uptight nobody wants you around._ Enoshima continued in this fashion until Ishimaru was so depressed that all he could do was cry in anguish. Thus, the disciplinarian transitioned to despair.

When Ikusaba tried to recruit Hagakure to Ultimate Despair, she unfortunately discovered that he didn't have anything to despair over. Not. One. Thing. No dead loved ones, no childhood bullies or other tragedies, nothing. After two weeks of attempting to find things to drag him into the depths of despair, like his financial debts (which was the secret he revealed on the Fated Day) or the fact that he was held back for several years, she was about to give up and tell Tsumiki to place Hagakure in the school of mutual killing. But then, all of a sudden, Hagakure came to  _her._ Turns out, Hagakure's parents had just divorced, and blaming himself, he begged Ikusaba to let him be a part of the despairification plan. 

Enoshima struggled to trigger Kirigiri's despair. Unlike her twin, who tried to look emotionless but was actually very emotionally vulnerable, the mysterious Kirigiri Kyouko was usually genuinely emotionless. Plus, the detective was dangerous, for she was always calculating and analytical. One mistake and Kirigiri would catch on to her intentions. Tsumiki was furious that her girlfriend had failed to corrupt Kirigiri until one day, Tsumiki just happened to overhear a conversation between the detective and Headmaster Kirigiri, and that's when everything clicked together. Kirigiri was trying to hide the fact that she felt loneliness and resentment because her father had abandoned her. Now that Tsumiki was aware of Kirigiri's  _true_ feelings, she used them to finally crack the seemingly cool and collected detective. Of course, Kirigiri didn't go down without a furious fight, but when Tsumiki delivered her final blow, the fact that her father would NEVER come back to her, Kirigiri eventually allowed herself to be enveloped by her growing despair.

When Enoshima first approached the gambler, Celes kept her distance from the fashionista.

"I've noticed that ever since Ikusaba talked to Yamada, he's been depressed to the point of being inconsolable," spat Celes coyly, "This serves as an inconvenience to me. Ever since he started suffocating in that atmosphere of darkness, the taste of his royal milk tea has become quite putrid."

Enoshima smoothly feigned innocence. "Oh, you know ol' Mukuro, she can be pretty damn blunt and depressing, being a mercenary and all."

"I suppose you are correct. However, Yamada is not the only one who seems disheartened as of late, I also spotted Hagakure approaching Ikusaba with a thick air of misery surrounding him. I can perceive that it is almost as if she is doing this on purpose. Furthermore, you are immensely suspicious since you are the twin sister of Ikusaba Mukuro, the one who caused not one, but two people to become so broody, no? Perhaps you two are plotting something?"

Enoshima mentally scoffed. Of course Celes noticed; of course she suspected. The gambler was one of the smarter ones, wary and observant unlike the other happy-go-lucky naïve idiots in the 78th Class. But Enoshima wouldn't let some insecure fake shake her. She told Celes to stop playing so high and mighty; to stop pretending she was heartless, scheming, and calculating when she wasn't. _You're no Gothic Lolita European gambler, you're just a homely and boring girl with a suiting plain name: Yasuhiro Taeko. Did you really think you could achieve your pathetic little dream of living in a castle? You're a nobody, Yasuhiro Taeko will never be able to be a princess surrounded by butlers. Celestia Ludenberg could, but wait, you're not Celes, are you? Give up. You're no mysterious gambler. You never will be._ Celes eventually forgot her original intent of pinning suspicions onto the fashionista and could only be paralyzed in despair as she was forced to realize the truth of who she really was, the truth of how little capabilities her true self possessed. And she would never recover, no, she would always be paralyzed in despair. 

Kuwata was a bit unguarded against Ikusaba, and the mercenary knew that he was, and she sought to use this to her advantage. However, it was more difficult than she expected, because the redhead was naturally light-natured and optimistic. But on the Fated Day, Kuwata had spoken of an unstable and traumatizing home life in which his parents didn't care about him, resulting in him always being with his cousin. Plus, he seemed to be bored with life, as he was sick of baseball and only pursued music for attention from females. Much like Tanaka Gundam, Kuwata was merely playing the role of a punk rock musician. The baseball player was merely acting out the same alias every single day for show and for little purpose. Ikusaba knew it was little despairing material to work with, but it was better than nothing if she had to help him convert to despair. Ikusaba coaxed Kuwata into giving into his despair by relentlessly reminding him of his doomed home life, that nobody cared about him, especially not his apathetic parents, and convincing him that there was nothing left in the world to take joy in or to relieve him of his boredom. No, the only way was to succumb to his despair and take the world down with him.

The ones who would be nearly impossible to despairify were Asahina, Oogami, Togami, and most of all, Naegi Makoto. At some point in time, Naegi realized what Tsumiki was trying to do to his friends and preached hope like the brat he was. And it almost worked on Asahina, who exuded happiness and hope wherever she went. She evidently didn't harbour any deep despair inside of her, since the secret she had confessed on the Fated Day was merely that she had cheated in a swim relay once. Much like her best friend, Oogami would also be difficult to recruit to Ultimate Despair, for she was loyal and hopeful to a fault. So Tsumiki had to resort to  _creating_ despair within both of them. The next day, the swimmer's parents and brother were tragically murdered by an unknown sniper. Well, the police were frantically trying to find the culprit, but Tsumiki knew that Ikusaba Mukuro, the Ultimate Mercenary, would never get caught. All according to plan, Asahina slipped into the treacherous depths of despair, never to return to the surface. As for Oogami, Tsumiki paid Kenshiro a little visit in the hospital and cut off the support he needed to live. He flat-lined hours later, with Oogami right by his side. Seeing the one she loved die right in front of her eyes, much earlier than she anticipated, took its toll on the fighter, and she too spiraled into despair alongside Asahina.

Togami Byakuya wasn't particularly hopeful, he just had nothing to despair about. Unlike Maizono, his life wasn't worse than it seemed, he was genuinely the heir of a financial giant and one of the richest people in the world. Sure, there was the fact that his parents didn't care about him, but he didn't seem too bothered about that; he was too focused on the Togami Conglomerate, too determined to be saddened. Tsumiki briefly considered doing the same thing she did to Asahina and having Ikusaba assassinate his butler, but she realized that would just ignite fury within him, not despair. Togami would probably swear revenge and dedicate his efforts in finding Aloysius' killer, not deal with his grief by turning to despair, so she scrapped the assassination idea. But in an unexpected turn of events, Togami came to _her_ with the proposal of joining Ultimate Despair. He claimed to be tired of being bored and that he wanted to spice things up a little. According to him, The Tragedy would be like playing a thrilling life-or-death game, and he was excited at that prospect. Tsumiki looked into his eyes and saw raw despair swirling within his eyes, and knew that he was being truthful. So Junko's philosophy was correct, it was true that the more one clung to hope and talent, the more despair set in. Thus, however unlikely it may have seemed, the Ultimate Heir joined her ranks.

Naegi restlessly tried again and again to spread the message of hope to his friends, but to no avail. When Naegi saw that nobody was listening to him and that everybody had been converted to despair, he realized that he had failed. Naegi knew now that hope didn't prevail against despair. He knew it was useless to be hopeful and optimistic, for despair would always win in the end. Finally, he disposed all notions of stupid hope and allowed despair to invade his being and devour him.

The nurse had successfully converted all of the Hope's Peak freshmen to despair, but Tsumiki also needed to recruit somebody from the 76th Class to ensure that she'd have a second backup mastermind in the School of Mutual Killing. She approached Komaeda Nagito and informed him of her plan, and surprisingly, he was ecstatic. He stated that the more despair one faces against, the more hope would be produced. Thus, he agreed to spread "ultimate despair" throughout the world as it would eventually became the world's stepping stone for pure and ultimate hope. Komaeda was also useful because he was dating Hinata Hajime, no, now he was Kamukura Izuru, the human embodiment of talent; the Ultimate Hope. Tsumiki knew that Kamukura would ultimately be an extremely important puzzle piece in her despairification plan, that with him, she would at least create sparks of despair that would turn into uncontrollable consuming flames, as he possessed numerous talents that she would eventually need. Together, Tsumiki and Komaeda twisted his boredom towards life into all-consuming despair. His previous title of Ultimate Hope was invalid, dead, and no more, for now he was the nineteenth member of Ultimate Despair.

Tsumiki stood, alongside Komaeda and Kamukura, in front of her beloved first years, her first sixteen followers, the start of Ultimate Despair. After all this time of fantasizing and planning, she had finally accomplished the pre-requisites to her ultimate goal: worldwide despair. She eyed the 78th Class that she herself had recruited to the side of anguish, grief, and all characteristics of sweet despair. She relished in the atmosphere of despair that surrounded every one of them, knowing that she had made progress in her despairification plan. And now, the final preparations were about to be finished. With her followers of despair, she would finally plant the seeds of despair into the soils of the Earth.

_To Be Continued._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter - Tragedy: The 78th Class cause destruction and spread despair in The Tragedy.  
> (It's my headcanon that the Remnants of Despair are from both the 77th and 76th classes, not all from one class, but that wouldn't work for this AU so I had to make all of 'em in the 76th. :c)  
> 


End file.
